A fast-paced fantasy adventure in which an Elven warrior comes to question everything about her world.
An Elven commander faces a new war in this first installment of Smith’s fantasy series.
As the story opens, 50 years have passed since the great Elven warrior Selenna and her allies fought and routed the forces of the Necromancer and brought peace to the land of Belissia—and 50 years since both Selenna and the Necromancer vanished in the course of their final confrontation (no bodies were found). The Elves are long-lived beings, most with some kind of mastery over the “five elements” of mancery (including Aquamancy, Electromancy, and Pyromancy). Others, called Truthseers, are trained in the art of mind-reading, and a tiny handful of Elven Inquisitors have the rare ability to shift between the dimension of Belissia and the mysterious Shadow Realm. As the book’s main action begins, Selenna’s daughter Selouteau is the captain of an airship in the Elven Armada when violence again threatens Belissia. After a massive force of Humans invades and establishes a beachhead on Belissia, Selouteau is tasked with shoring up the Elven position in the coming conflict by making overtures to Ezell, the self-exiled prince of the Ez people. At her side on this mission will be young Ensign Perch, a Truthseer who’s far more than he seems. The situation is likewise more complex than it looks: Ever since the Necromancer’s War, ruling Elven factions have been high-handed toward and dismissive of the Ez and other groups they call “Lesser Races”—a fact that the invading Human Alliance, under the cultlike control of a “Divine-King,” is only happy to exploit. Selouteau’s orders are “to gain allies, not start another war,” but long before the fast-paced action of the book’s climax arrives, readers will know that another war is inevitable.
Smith’s prose is occasionally verbose and overdramatic (“The words hit Selouteau like a physical blow,” reads one passage; “her head swam, and her mind reeled”), and the author sometimes gives his characters groan-worthy dialogue (“If I ever see your ugly, scarred face again, it will be the last thing you remember,” snarls Ezell after a barroom brawl, adding, “ever”). But he has an unfailing knack for conveying gripping action scenes, and, despite the fact that the various sorceries give his Elven characters (particularly Selouteau herself) the equivalent of comic book superpowers, Smith manages to invest confrontations with the feeling of real tension and stakes. By far the book’s most fascinating element is its steady thread of subversion: Readers will instinctively like Selouteau, but they’ll quickly wonder if they’re rooting for the wrong side. The Human Alliance might initially seem boorish and malevolent, but by the time Prince Ezell speaks about “the curfews and mandatory camps imposed by the Elves during the war” that resulted in “tens of thousands of deaths,” readers will be looking at Selouteau and the other Elves in a harsher light, which is refreshing to find in a supernatural epic. This is first-rate fantasy in the Tolkien vein, with future volumes sure to deepen the story.
A fast-paced fantasy adventure in which an Elven warrior comes to question everything about her world.Pub Date: June 14, 2024
ISBN: 9781923163690
Page Count: 264
Publisher: Clark & MacKay
Review Posted Online: Nov. 3, 2024
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
A headbanging beginning to what could be a remarkable urban fantasy series—heavy metal playlist sadly not included.
After being murdered and inexplicably reborn, a heavy metal musician sets out on a journey of self-discovery with nothing short of the future of humankind at stake in the first installment of Sanderson and Orullian’s Strata Wars saga.
Jack Solomon is not having a good day. After moving to London from the mean streets of Los Angeles and starting a metal band called the Hounds of Winter, he’s been kicked out of the group just weeks before they’re scheduled to open for Black Sabbath at Wembley Stadium. While Jack is walking with his good friend Henry Wilkinson—a father figure of sorts who has mentored Jack over the years and owns the music venue the Iron Horse—they are both shot and (seemingly) killed. Then Jack regains consciousness and finds himself in a hellscape with a massive mountain of fire in the distance and countless human statues everywhere. After Henry appears in the vision, telling Jack, “You’ve got more to do,” Jack awakens in front of Henry’s flat, unharmed but covered in blood. With Henry’s body missing, Jack begins to understand his new reality: He’s a thanatist (don’t call him a necromancer) and Henry’s venue hides an entrance to the Strata—“several long periods of London history that have coalesced to form layers of the past.” The Strata are inhabited by gruesome creatures and millions of memories, and Jack discovers that someone wants to take over the Iron Horse, with its staircase to every level of the Strata, and begin a revolution where music (curated by a madman) can change the future of humanity. The many shoutouts to legendary bands notwithstanding, this novel is powered by two elements: the exceptional worldbuilding of the subterranean Strata, whose potential is virtually limitless; and Jack’s deeply personal healing journey, which includes forgiving others—like his mother, who abandoned him—and himself. Jack’s story arc is comparable to his adventures in the Strata: The deeper he descends into the Strata, the deeper he delves into himself.
A headbanging beginning to what could be a remarkable urban fantasy series—heavy metal playlist sadly not included.Pub Date: June 16, 2026
ISBN: 9781668068144
Page Count: 464
Publisher: Saga/Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: April 6, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2026
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
PERSPECTIVES
PERSPECTIVES
Although the melodrama sometimes is a bit much, the superb worldbuilding and intricate plotline make this a must-read.
Using mystery and romance elements in a nonlinear narrative, SenLinYu’s debut is a doorstopper of a fantasy that follows a woman with missing memories as she navigates through a war-torn realm in search of herself.
Helena Marino is a talented young healer living in Paladia—the “Shining City”—who has been thrust into a brutal war against an all-powerful necromancer and his army of Undying, loyal henchmen with immortal bodies, and necrothralls, reanimated automatons. When Helena is awakened from stasis, a prisoner of the necromancer’s forces, she has no idea how long she has been incarcerated—or the status of the war. She soon finds herself a personal prisoner of Kaine Ferron, the High Necromancer’s “monster” psychopath who has sadistically killed hundreds for his master. Ordered to recover Helena’s buried memories by any means necessary, the two polar opposites—Helena and Kaine, healer and killer—end up discovering much more as they begin to understand each other through shared trauma. While necromancy is an oft-trod subject in fantasy novels, the author gives it a fresh feel—in large part because of their superb worldbuilding coupled with unforgettable imagery throughout: “[The necromancer] lay reclined upon a throne of bodies. Necrothralls, contorted and twisted together, their limbs transmuted and fused into a chair, moving in synchrony, rising and falling as they breathed in tandem, squeezing and releasing around him…[He] extended his decrepit right hand, overlarge with fingers jointed like spider legs.” Another noteworthy element is the complex dynamic between Helena and Kaine. To say that these two characters shared the gamut of intense emotions would be a vast understatement. Readers will come for the fantasy and stay for the romance.
Although the melodrama sometimes is a bit much, the superb worldbuilding and intricate plotline make this a must-read.Pub Date: Sept. 23, 2025
ISBN: 9780593972700
Page Count: 1040
Publisher: Del Rey
Review Posted Online: July 17, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2025
© Copyright 2026 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Follow
Popular in this Genre
We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!
It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!
Already have an account? Log in.
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Welcome Back!
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
